Many new victories...some defeats....

Hey, there's a new video feature to blogger! I'm going to test it out by putting on this little clip of Mel climbing up to the summit of Devil's Slide during our Half Moon Bay bike ride on August 11...

(Good thing the video is so small that you can't really see which finger she is pointing at me!)

Well, we've been busy in the last 3 weeks. I was on service after our Half Moon Bay ride, and Mel was able to go on a Jerry training ride when I was busy working. She successfully climbed up Old La Honda! Then, they went on to ride half of the Pescadero loop that I had done a while back. After I was done on service, then it was Mel's turn on service, so we didn't get out much during that time.

Finally, we were able to get out on August 26, 2007 to really get a great ride in. I wanted to try Old La Honda again since I was green with envy that Mel had reached that milestone without me. We set out from campus, out to Alpine and Portola, which was a good warmup to Old La Honda. Finally, we started climbing. We did stop a few times, took a break, talked on the phone, had some Gu, and slowly but surely, we were inching our way to the top...close to the summit, this is what we saw...
Somebody on Old La Honda has a sense of humor! By car or by bike, Old La Honda is a steep, windy, treacherous road. My favorite part of the ride was seeing a biker dad climb up Old La Honda with his toddler in a bicycle side-carrier, much like a sidecar. Of course, they were able to pass me and Mel (actually twice passing us...once going uphill and once going downhill). Little kids are faster than us!

But, 45 minutes of riding time later (not counting all the stops we had made along the way), we reached the top...a great feeling! We reached Skyline and proceeded on another new route that we had never tried before. Here's Mel in some inspirational-looking biking photos on Skyline...

It was really gorgeous- - a quiet, forested area with little traffic, just lots of trees, the way it should be.

Unfortunately, the victory of climbing up Old La Honda was soon marred by a severe back spasm in Mel that required a variety of prescription drugs, a hobble to her internist and a trip to the MRI scanner. Fortunately, her back muscles did eventually calm down with just some residual twitches and soreness. Good thing, because yesterday, September 1, we had a big ride with Jerry and the gang...
I've posted this map of Marin county before, but this time, not only did we ride around Richardson Bay, Sausalito, Tiburon and (my favorite) Paradise Cove, we also conquered the Marin Headlands! It started off really steep, which really sapped all my climbing confidence, but did eventually get a bit easier. You know it's steep when runners pass us cyclists struggling up the incline. The day was sunnier and clearer than our first time up to Marin, so we were able to see a lot more. Here's the view from the top of the Marin Headlands; you can see the fog shrouded Golden Gate.

The descent from the Headlands was the scariest downhill ride I've ever taken! It was steep and so twisty! One bad turn and off the cliff you go...

After the climbing, we were able to relax and enjoy Marin...we rode through tourist and cyclist packed Sausalito, which was having an art festival that day, so it was even more crowded than usual. We were rounding Richardson Bay, with great views of the water and Angel Island, when I met for the second time, my Right Turn of Shame. The first time I did this turn, I could not turn sharply enough and fell into the hedge bordering the turn. This time, I felt ready--I had the energy surge of finishing the Marin Headlands, it was a gorgeous day, and I hadn't fallen for quite some time now, so I was in really good mental shape. However, as I got closer I did a little wimp-out. I will blame Mel, who was in front of me, for turning too slowly, forcing me to lose momentum, and scrape the wooden rail with my arm, necessitating me to stop and walk the bike through the turn. Yet again, I was defeated by the Right Turn of Shame! At least I didn't fall over into the surrounding hedge, but I do have a little road rash on my arm as a reminder. Next time...I will make it!!

After lunch at Shark's Deli, we rode on my all-time favorite route around Paradise Cove. It was breath-taking...blue green water dotted with lots of sailboats, the view of the Bay and the city beyond. So beautiful! After the eye-candy, my legs, however, started to poop out. My climbing legs were gone, and I was left with legs of jelly. We had two more momentous climbs ahead of us, and I was really worried about my jelly-legs, as well as Mel's back, which was acting up again. Fortunately, Chapman Ave was not as bad as we feared and had remembered (are we making progress somehow??), and then I lost Mel altogether going down from Chapman back to Sausalito! She was swept up, bad back and all, with the faster group of riders! I hung back with the not-as-fast group, barely keeping up with them, back through Sausalito. By early afternoon, it was packed with cars and we actually had to weave around some of them to get through the streets! Mayhem indeed! Well, the last climb was tough, but by then I think I was numb to the pain. We climbed back up to the Golden Gate bridge through Fort Baker, then had to fight the tourist surge crossing the bridge (hazardous!). It was a gorgeous day...really sunny, clear for the most part except for a stubborn cloud on part of the Golden Gate, and just perfect for biking. See?

Today, both Mel and I are tired and sore. We were supposed to go out riding this afternoon, but my achey legs protested, so I am blogging instead. Tomorrow, we will get out for a long ride...I can't believe it is September already! Next week, we have our Tour de Tahoe ride!! Then in 4 weeks starts the CCC! This is it--the last month of training!!!